Global-change effects on early-stage decomposition processes in tidal wetlands – implications from a global survey using standardized litter

Mueller, Peter; Schile-Beers, Lisa; Mozdzer, Thomas J.; Chmura, Gail L.; Dinter, Thomas; Kuzyakov, Yakov; Groot, A.V. de; Esselink, Peter; Smit, Christian; D’Alpaos, Andrea; Ibáñez, Carles; Lazarus, Magdalena; Neumeier, Urs; Johnson, Beverly J.; Baldwin, Andrew H.; Yarwood, Stephanie A.; Montemayor, Diana I.; Yang, Zhongyi; Wu, Jihua; Jensen, Kai

doi:10.5194/bg-15-3189-2018

Cited by 86 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…Mangrove forests and graminoid-dominated salt marshes can both be highly productive ecosystems with the potential for high rates of soil carbon accumulation (Chmura et al, 2003;Feher et al, 2017). In our study region, the positive linear relationship between temperature and productivity may be offset by a comparable positive linear relationship between temperature and decomposition Kirwan & Blum, 2011;Mueller et al, 2018), which could explain the lack of change in SOM across the temperature gradient or between mangrove forests and graminoid-dominated salt marshes.…”

Section: Temperature and Plant Productivity (Climate And Biota)mentioning

confidence: 75%

Climate and plant controls on soil organic matter in coastal wetlands

Osland

Gabler

Grace

et al. 2018

Global Change Biology

135

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Coastal wetlands are among the most productive and carbon-rich ecosystems on Earth. Long-term carbon storage in coastal wetlands occurs primarily belowground as soil organic matter (SOM). In addition to serving as a carbon sink, SOM influences wetland ecosystem structure, function, and stability. To anticipate and mitigate the effects of climate change, there is a need to advance understanding of environmental controls on wetland SOM. Here, we investigated the influence of four soil formation factors: climate, biota, parent materials, and topography. Along the northern Gulf of Mexico, we collected wetland plant and soil data across elevation and zonation gradients within 10 estuaries that span broad temperature and precipitation gradients. Our results highlight the importance of climate-plant controls and indicate that the influence of elevation is scale and location dependent. Coastal wetland plants are sensitive to climate change; small changes in temperature or precipitation can transform coastal wetland plant communities. Across the region, SOM was greatest in mangrove forests and in salt marshes dominated by graminoid plants. SOM was lower in salt flats that lacked vascular plants and in salt marshes dominated by succulent plants. We quantified strong relationships between precipitation, salinity, plant productivity, and SOM. Low precipitation leads to high salinity, which limits plant productivity and appears to constrain SOM accumulation. Our analyses use data from the Gulf of Mexico, but our results can be related to coastal wetlands across the globe and provide a foundation for predicting the ecological effects of future reductions in precipitation and freshwater availability. Coastal wetlands provide many ecosystem services that are SOM dependent and highly vulnerable to climate change. Collectively, our results indicate that future changes in SOM and plant productivity, regulated by cascading effects of precipitation on freshwater availability and salinity, could impact wetland stability and affect the supply of some wetland ecosystem services.

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Section: Temperature and Plant Productivity (Climate And Biota)mentioning

confidence: 75%

Climate and plant controls on soil organic matter in coastal wetlands

Osland

Gabler

Grace

et al. 2018

Global Change Biology

135

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“…A growing number of studies assessing the impact of accelerated sea‐level rise on tidal‐wetland C cycling demonstrate either negligible effects or even stimulated microbial decomposition in response to increasing flooding frequency (Mueller et al, and refs. therein).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has often been hypothesized that rates of microbial decomposition would increase with elevation and associated increases in soil oxygen availability (Kirwan et al, ; Miller, Neubauer, & Anderson, ; Reed, ). However, the elevation–decomposition relationship is more complex because surface elevation does not only affect soil oxygen availability via flooding frequency, but also the nutrient status of the soil system by controlling the supply of dissolved inorganic nutrients and nutrient‐rich marine organic matter (Mueller et al, , ). Moreover, organic/mineral matter contents, ion supply via salt‐water influx, and soil pH often co‐vary with surface elevation and are known to affect microbial functioning (Morrissey, Gillespie, Morina, & Franklin, ; Sinsabaugh et al, ; Weintraub, Wieder, Cleveland, & Townsend, ), thus potentially counterbalancing effects of oxygen availability on decomposition along elevation gradients.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unrecognized controls on microbial functioning in Blue Carbon ecosystems: The role of mineral enzyme stabilization and allochthonous substrate supply

Mueller

Granse

Nolte

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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Tidal wetlands are effective carbon sinks, mitigating climate change through the long-term removal of atmospheric CO 2 . Studies along surface-elevation and thus flooding-frequency gradients in tidal wetlands are often used to understand the effects of accelerated sea-level rise on carbon sequestration, a process that is primarily determined by the balance of primary production and microbial decomposition. It

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“…Here we use the TBI to examine the influence of different soil characteristics on litter decomposition at two tidal saltmarshes in Belhaven Bay, Scotland. We also expand upon the previously published uses of the TBI (Djukic et al, 2018;Mueller et al, 2018) by extending the in situ incubation time to a year and by exploring how the decomposition of OM relates to the loss of OC. An improved understanding of early OC degradation in saltmarsh environments will provide new insights into the processes governing long-term C storage in coastal wetlands.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Assessment of the Tea Bag Index Method as a Proxy for Organic Matter Decomposition in Intertidal Environments

2019

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Intertidal wetlands capture and store carbon (C) for long periods of time, helping to reduce the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. Yet the processes, which govern the decomposition and subsequent long‐term storage of organic matter (OM) and C in these habitats, remain poorly understood. The Tea Bag Index (TBI) uses a standardized OM (green and Rooibos tea) and has the potential to shed light on OM decomposition across habitats, including saltmarshes. Here, we apply the TBI method at two saltmarshes within the same estuary with the aim of (i) reducing the influence of climatic variables and (ii) determining the role of the environment, including the soil characteristics, in the decomposition of OM. We extended the standard (3 months) incubation period over a full year in order to investigate the longer‐term decomposition processes at each site. The initial results partially support previous studies that the early stages of decomposition (leaching of the water‐soluble fraction) is governed by climatic conditions, but may be further enhanced by tidal flushing in saltmarshes. By extending the incubation period, we observed the initiation of midstage OM decomposition (cellulose degradation) upon which the soil characteristics appear to be the dominant control. These results highlight the importance of long‐term TBI incubations to understand early‐stage OM decomposition. The relationship between tea mass (OM) loss and C loss in these intertidal environments is not straightforward, and we would caution the use of the TBI as a direct universal proxy for soil C degradation in such intertidal wetlands.

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Global-change effects on early-stage decomposition processes in tidal wetlands – implications from a global survey using standardized litter

Cited by 86 publications

References 70 publications

Climate and plant controls on soil organic matter in coastal wetlands

Climate and plant controls on soil organic matter in coastal wetlands

Unrecognized controls on microbial functioning in Blue Carbon ecosystems: The role of mineral enzyme stabilization and allochthonous substrate supply

An Assessment of the Tea Bag Index Method as a Proxy for Organic Matter Decomposition in Intertidal Environments

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